Hi Contra, actually i shared that dream as well, this is definitely doable but we need locals, correct foundation for the business to be laid and the right group people to take care of this as its a full time business. Especially for certain crops like pineapple where even the presence of 1 single wild boar could lay months of hard work to waste. You will definitely also need a pick up, etc.
Hi Jasonjst, best way to try this and go in without much risk is to rent a piece of land for several years instead of buying, survey it and ensure that there are existing crops similar or what you want to grow and just try it out. That way you can always get out easily later without too much headaches.
Wuqi, Very right. Do homework, know locals or wait & learn from experience until can self-consider to be local enough to venture into agriculture. I think running a non-agri business is less risky. Then again I am biased as I hate snakes
You seem almost local by now with your vast reservoir of local knowledge & experiences ...
In my view, one mistake my dad made was to buy the land without direct access from any road (fact is it is not easy to find one that is next to a road nor directly accessible from an existing road). It was a speculation and urged on by his local 'friends' that someday a road will be made thru it, when development was supposed to come, which did not happen. (At the end of the day was his own responsibility). We always had to go thru someone else's land. Lucky they were nice people but who knows, their descendents could have been a 'holes who could have demanded toll. So you can imagine it would have been very lucky to have avoided any capital loss when trying to sell such a land. All in, was cheaper to have bought durians from the market .
As for form of commercial enterprise, LLP is unfortunately not yet existing in Malaysia but by the time forumers can come together, it might be ready ....As you know, right now only options are limited liability companies (sdn bhd), sole proprietor or partnership. All must still be registered with Registrar of companies but only sdn bhd need make the usual audited accounts etc.
Jason, I sometimes think over-analysis causes paralysis. After all, rewards come after taking risks. In this case however I would take wuqi's experience as a good advice as the risk does seem quite high.
